OneCarolina

Training and Testing Fill the Calendar ( November 23, 2010)

To judge from all the activity, the most popular places at OneCarolina right now are the training rooms. Since the Project moved into its Implementation phase, training for both technical and core administrative teams has been a priority.

Through the summer and fall, OneCarolina teams worked with consultants from SunGard Higher Education to install the main technical and software infrastructure for the Banner administrative system. Since then teams have been working on building out the software to meet University requirements and business process needs. Now that working models are up and running, core teams are learning the new system and preparing for detailed testing.

Training sessions are following two tracks for the Project. Technical training is focused on database/system administration and reporting systems. Members of the technical team just completed the first classes on the Operational Data Store/Enterprise Data Warehouse (ODS/EDW). In December, they will be attending advanced ODS/EDW and database administration training in preparation for managing OneCarolina's complex enterprise system.

Core administrative teams are training on the Banner administrative system. "Everyone is doing great in arranging their schedules to attend training onsite or via WebEx sessions," says Dave Brunner, principle process consultant and trainer for SunGardHE. "I am very pleased with our progress. The team is finally getting the chance to begin taking ownership of the system as they learn to navigate it."

In October, groups from Admissions, Financial Aid, and Student Services began learning how to find their way around the system. This month, training is focused on how to run specific administrative processes within the software. The groups will also start testing the actual system in December and early January.

For the Financial Aid team, training and testing is already well underway. "We are engaged in the serious and complex process of testing the recently installed Virtual Private Database (VPD) functionality," says Bob Godfrey, OneCarolina's FinAid team leader. "There are 115 test cases spread over 230 pages of the system. We must test each case to determine if the database functionality is doing what it is supposed to do on every Banner form."

Over the next month, a larger group of Financial Aid staff from around the University will participate in hands-on training of the Banner system, and also begin broader system testing.

The Student Team is busy with hands-on Banner navigational training and learning how to build course catalogs. They are also preparing to test the process that will convert current records into the new system. And the Admissions team is in process of developing and configuring Banner for University-specific admissions workflows.

"This is truly a team effort," says Barbara Blaney, leader of the Student team. "Every day I see folks in both functional offices and University Technology Services demonstrate commitment to a successful implementation of the new system."